What Is Happiness?

What is happiness?

Why are we going to LOS, possibly to find happiness?

Where will you find it?

What will it be?

How will you know you found it?

How will you savour it?

For how long?

How will you remember it?

For how long?

Will you want to repeat it again?

Will it be so good the next time?

Biologically happiness is the release of certain hormones in our brain caused by a pleasurable or memorable even and
this hormonal release often continues once one falls "in love", for a period of up to 2 to 3 years and then
declines.

What is a pleasurable event?

Opening a bottle of Coke? (as the publicity would have you think)

Picking up your nth bargirl?

Buying and driving a sports car?

Successfully learning to fly?

Bungee jumping?

Finding a real GFE?

Tasting an ice cold Singha?

Seeing your kids graduate?

Making money with your own business?

My premise on the above and having done most of them, is that the pleasure is oft short and not deep.

Indeed I would proffer the statement that the older one is, the less the buzz of happiness will occur.

Let's take the GFE.

The first time was fantastic… but after that, some excitement in the chase, but the rest is pretty much a well-trodden path.

Let's take flying a light airplane.

The first 4 lessons are gratifying. After qualification it then becomes rather routine.

Let's take the middle-age crisis sports car.

Nice to drive, and occasionally you get some nice waves, but after having it 5 years it's pretty routine.

Let's take the business.

First year is an exciting learning curve and incredible hard work (80-hour weeks or so).

2nd year setting the routines (60 hr weeks)

3rd year dealing with cretinous employees who can't even seal a box properly and more routine …. (60 hr weeks correcting the cock ups of others).

So I would proffer that even the more "exotic" of things will eventually become routine and blasé.

What can one do to have more excitement and hormonal happiness?

Some ideas :

Try new places e.g. Vietnam, Laos, Philippine back country, or wilderness places to empty your head. My next destination will be central Iceland.

Try some new activities / sports / challenges. My next would be to try to kite surf (can already do the parafoil and wakeboard separately, the trick is to do both at the same time!)

Try meeting new people. Of course, that can be difficult to find the time and people if you are tied up in a heavy work routine.

From what I have seen in the median visitor to LOS, is that it revolves about the nightlife industry almost entirely. This can quickly become deadly boring (in more senses than one).

Some more "balanced" correspondents would seem to have a local business, a local non-working girl companion and a well evolved meaningful way of life.

Some would seem to help with charitable work for orphans (sounds like a good idea), some others would really dedicate their efforts to increase the local knowledge base e.g. dedicated teachers.

Some others would go into a tough body training regime (Muay Thai boxing) even if it now seems that some of the characters there are rather off the wall e.g. the Englishman's killer.

I would commend all those people who come to LOS with a plan and a goal. They will likely find a degree of true happiness. However those who drift from bar to bar solely concentrating on seeking the next working girl fix will likely become
disconsolate and perhaps take that last flight from a 6th floor balcony in a provincial town…

Of course those who are able to come over to LOS for the annual fix of girls and booze for a limited period and with a certain sense of detachment will also probably be able to make the best of things during their stay, h. However, Anglo
Saxon guys seem to get it out of proportion and find themselves too wrapped up in it. Southern Europeans seem to be able to take it more from a distance.

In that case it is very important to keep in mind at all times that even if the working girl GFE seems real, it is just a timeshare relationship and will end abruptly when the contract expires.

Wishing you all that elusive sense of happiness!
the Frenchman